CIBC, like its domestic peers, continues to shore up its loan-loss reserves to counter the economic impacts of COVID-19. The bank set aside $525 million in its third quarter, less than the record $1.41 billion in provisions in the second quarter but still up from the $291 million a year earlier.
Canadian personal and small-business banking is led by Laura Dottori-Attanasio, the one-time chief risk officer who took over CIBC’s biggest division in March. Earnings from the domestic division fell 23 per cent this year to $508 million on lower revenue resulting from the pandemic’s economic impact.Article content continued
CIBC has a commercial-banking and wealth-management presence on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, thanks to its 2017 purchase of Chicago-based PrivateBancorp. The U.S. business posted a 64 per cent earnings decline to $62 million, while in Canada earnings fell 7 per cent to $320 million. Domestic mortgage growth is a key focus for investors, and they’re looking to see if CIBC builds on an “encouraging” fiscal second-quarter upswing to move beyond two years of “significant underperformance,” said Scotiabank analyst Meny Grauman. That happened, with mortgage balances at $207 billion in the third quarter, compared with $204 billion in the prior period and $201 billion a year ago.CIBC shares have fallen 5.6 per cent this year through Wednesday, outperforming the 9.